


Breathe Again

by BrightEyesIllusionist



Series: 100 Themes Challenge [10]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 100 Themes Challenge, BAMF Tony Stark, Gen, Kidnapping, Mild torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 05:58:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightEyesIllusionist/pseuds/BrightEyesIllusionist
Summary: Rhodey was going to be pissed.... Tony wakes up with a massive hangover, and he wishes that his kidnappers were a little more inventive.





	Breathe Again

The slap to the face woke Tony up pretty quickly, which was pretty impressive considering how much he'd been drinking the night before. He blinked slowly, shaking his head a little to clear it. 

Ow. Yeah, that was a mistake. Hangover was still a thing. Damn.

Rhodey was going to be pissed.

The second slap connected to his already stinging cheek and sent his head jerking to the side. Tony sighed and poked at the inside of his cheek with his tongue. It didn't taste like he was bleeding, but the flesh felt tender enough. Finally he turned to look up at whoever had decided to kidnap him this week. 

He had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

“Did you guys actually go shopping at a freaking costume shop?” The man was wearing one of those plastic Halloween animal masks over his face with a black jacket and jeans to complete the look. Glancing around the warehouse room, Tony also saw a few other guys in the same sort of outfit. The main guy had a lion mask, while the others consisted of a bear, elephant, zebra, and a tiger that he could see.

“Anthony Edward Stark,” the man said slowly. “You're probably wondering why you are here.”

Tony rolled his head to try and get the kink out of his neck. No luck. “Not really. Mostly just wondering about the masks still. Seriously, is there a 'Kidnapping for Dummies' book or something? It seems like all you guys get your ideas from the same place. Masks, abandoned warehouse, seriously it got old after the first couple times.”

The lion guy chuckled and Tony raised an eyebrow. “I don't think you realize the gravity of your situation.” He raised a hand, palm facing upwards. One of the guys off to the side, the one with the elephant mask, nodded and turned to lift one of the large garage doors in the warehouse. 

Behind it was a little girl.

Tied to a chair and gagged, her eyes were wide with fear. Tony could hear her breathing through her nose in uneven pants. Her dark hair, matted with sweat and grease, hopefully just sweat and grease, fell limp beside her face, framing equally dark eyes. 

Lion dude walked around Tony and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Now. Let me explain. We know you won't do anything if it's just you're well being on the line. You're used to this sort of thing.” He chuckled again and placed a hand on his other shoulder and squeezed. “You also know that we're not going to hurt you too badly, because we need you. She on the other hand, is completely expendable.”

The elephant man walked over to stand behind her, placing his own hands on her shoulders. Tony could see his fingers pressing into the cloth of her shirt, slowly turning the pink of his knuckles white. She whimpered slightly.

“Do you understand?” The lion guy's breath ghosted hissed through the slit in the mask and hit Tony's ear, the combination making him shiver slightly.

“Yeah, I get it,” he said, biting his tongue to keep from saying anything more. An out of place remark now would do nothing but annoy them, and he didn't want to give them an excuse to offer a demonstration.

“Good.” Lion guy let go of his shoulders and walked around to face him again. “A little birdie told me that you,” he poked Tony's nose, “are the mastermind behind the new line of personal grenades that the military has recently started using. We want some of those.”

Tony grimaced. Those grenades were... not something he wanted anyone using anywhere near civilians. They were meant to be a last resort sort of thing, emergency use only and not available to common soldiers. They were precise, powerful, and inexpensive to produce. A great combination for Stark Industries and the Army, and really really bad if goons like these got their hands on it. 

“I honestly don't know what you're talking about.” Tony shrugged as much as he could. “I've been focused on school.”

“Break one of her fingers.”

The little girl's scream echoed the sharp snap of her finger. Tony's eyes widened in horror as hers overflowed with pain filled tears.

“The hell man! I told you I don't know!” Lion guy snapped again in response to Tony's shout and another scream rang out as another of the girl's fingers were broken.

“I don't like being lied to, Mister Stark.” He patted Tony on the head condescendingly. “I already told you she was expendable. You have eight lies left,” he snapped. “Make that seven.”

The girl was sobbing through her screams now.

Sweat dripped from Tony's temples and he licked his lips. He didn't want to give them anything, but he also didn't want the little girl to be hurt more.

“Stop it! Okay,” Tony said. “I designed the stupid grenades, okay.” 

“That wasn't so hard now, was it?” The lion guy squeezed Tony's head before letting go. “This is how it's going to work now. We'll bring you supplies, and you build them while we watch. The girl is going to stay with you the whole time. Do anything we don't like, and well I think you know what's going to happen.”

Tony nodded and he felt one of the guys untie his arms from the chair. He pulled his hands in front of him and rubbed his sore wrists. The bear guy and zebra guy brought a table into the room and set it in front of him. 

“Let's not waste time.” With a final squeeze to Tony's skull, lion guy walked away to stand against one of the far walls. 

Looking at the contents of the table, Tony frowned. These guys actually did know what they were talking about. Everything here was exactly what he needed to build the grenades. There could be a couple of reasons for that and Tony didn't like any of them. The plans for the grenades were saved his his personal server, so conceivably they could have hacked into it. That option was doubtful, Tony was utterly confident in his programming, especially with the new AI he was developing. Also, there were a few other projects there that were close to completion, each more powerful or versatile than the grenades, and they hadn't mentioned those.

The other option, of course, was a leak at SI. Someone was dealing under the table and sold information to these guys. He'd have to investigate that when he got out of here.

He took a deep breath, and reached out to the materials on the table. Biting back a grin, he got to work.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He'd built five of them before they noticed anything was amiss. One for each of them. Honestly, it was pretty easy after that.

The first one he tossed at the guy with the elephant mask. He'd relaxed a little, leaning against the wall rather than standing directly behind the girl now. The grenades weren't exactly explosives, and they weren't technically lethal, but the concussive explosion was plenty effective at knocking the man out. 

Tony stood and lobbed two more of them, one at the zebra and bear guys standing near each other, and the second and tiger guy who stood up on the walkway above everyone. They collapsed quickly and Tony turned to grab the last two grenades.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.” Tony turned to look at Lion guy. He stood with the girl, still in her chair, in front of him. His gun pressed against her head. “Set those down and walk over here.”

Tony gently set the grenades on the table and walked slowly over. 

“Good.” Tony could hear the grin in lion guy's voice. “Those were not what we asked for. I told you I don't like liars.” He pressed the barrel harder against the girl's head, getting a whine in response. 

Tony stood in front of the man and ground his teeth. “You asked me to build grenades, I built grenades. You didn't tell me not to use them.”

“That is true,” the man said. “Lucky for you, that little demonstration was rather impressive. So I'll tell you what, build me more of those on top of the ones I already asked for, and maybe her punishment won't be quite so... permanent.”

Tony bit his lip, almost. So close. “And if I say no?”

“I think you know the answer to that.” He pulled the gun away from the girl and pointed it at Tony.

Tony grinned. “Yeah, I think I do.” In his pocket he hit the remote detonator button he'd rigged for one of the grenades. It exploded behind him, distracting the lion guy enough that he was able to grab the gun and pistol whip the guy across the temple. He fell with a groan, his head bouncing against the ground as he landed. Tony sighed, and stepped behind the girl to untie her.

“You okay?” He asked quietly, untying her arms from the chair. She nodded and as soon as he'd finished untying her she threw her arms around him in a hug.

“Hey. It's alright. Um...” Tony grimaced. “What's your name kiddo?” 

“Lilly,” she said quietly, huffing breaths against his shoulder.

He nodded. “Lilly. Okay, pretty name. Um, I'm going to get you out of here, alright. We're gonna call some people to take care of these guys.”

She nodded quietly, and Tony took a deep breath. “Okay, yeah. Sorry kid. It's all over, alright. I know it hurts. Take a deep breath, alright? Just breathe. It's all over.”


End file.
